Friday, 15 October 2010

The new issue is nearly here! We're set to be launching at the London anarchist bookfair, so if you're in the city on October 23rd, come down and have a look around, chat to people, look at the stalls and talks, and buy this top notch magazine which features:Exposé: A US citizen exposes the ever-changing landscape for getting visas and the games played with people’s lives by politicians grubbing for votesCover story: Ed Goddard pulls on the links between traditional trade unionism and the state – do union bureaucracies deliberately dampen militancy? Analysis: A journalist who has worked the Somali coast gives a different view on ‘progressive’ piracy in the Indian Ocean Reportage: Joe Hell looks at the latest action in a wave of desperate measures by cleaning staff In Focus: The Anarchist Federation on cuts Breathing Utopia: A former international development worker explains the industry and why it shouldn’t exist Interview: A Cenetista talks on the beginnings of the Spanish anarchists’ trade union Reportage: The Zapatistas are under attackIn focus: Proudon, the first anarchist Radical Reprint: Proudhon vs Leroux Analysis: Kropotkin’s social revolution Analysis: Willis’s “history of historians” Review: Pistoleros! one and two Hob’s Choice: The newest pamphlets Review: Lenny Flank and Marxism Review: Dave Douglass – the trilogy

Saturday, 4 September 2010

After an influx of interest from writers (if not, alas, from people who's first love is phoning up shops to get us stocked, chasing payments and generally getting down to the nitty gritty of admin and distro) it looks like we're filling up our pages nicely. Among some of our prospective articles are:

- A US citizen in London tells of her constant battle and the high price of staying in Britain against ongoing state hostility

- Ed Goddard of libcom.org taking on the thorny question of why trade unionism is failing working people in a time of crisis.

- A genuinely alternative take on Somali piracy from a journalist who has been there and seen first-hand the realities on the ground.

Monday, 2 August 2010

2010 is a year of anniversaries. It is 170 years since Proudhon proclaimed himself an anarchist and that “property is theft!” It is 20 years since the poll-tax riot. It is 40 years since Black Flag first came out.

Originally associated with the Anarchist Black Cross, Black Flag has been an independent magazine for some decades. It was born of a time of intense class struggle and its founders, Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer, aimed to give revolutionary anarchists a forum. That is still its aim and it is still, we think, Britain’s leading anarchist magazine.

We hope to present a lively journal which will interest those seeking to discover more about anarchist ideas and activity but also has something for long-standing activists. Our aim is to produce a mix of analysis of current events, theoretical contributions, articles on key moments of our history and reviews. We hope to produce a magazine for current activists as well as link to the voices from our past (our “revolutionary reprint” feature which has, so far, included Errico Malatesta, Murray Bookchin, Ethel MacDonald, Emma Goldman and John Most).

Malatesta

McDonald

Issue 231 is currently on-sale now (available from Freedom and many other radical bookshops as well as on-line at www.akuk.com). As well as an interview with Stuart Christie, we have a mix of articles and reviews on subjects and books of interest to all radicals. It discusses electorial abstentionism, libertarian approaches to health, includes tributes to both Colin Ward and Howard Zinn and celebrates the 1990 anti-poll-tax riot. We also mark the 100th anniversary of Kropotkin’s entry on anarchism for the Encyclopaedia Britannica with a discussion of this classic introduction and summary of our ideas and movement. And lots more.

Most

Goldman

Issue 232 is being prepared now and we are seeking help from those who wish Black Flag to continue. We aim to be a non-sectarian forum for discussion and analysis for all revolutionary libertarians, although with a firm focus on revolutionary anarchism (communist-anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, etc.). We also aim to increase our frequency and distribution.

However, we still need help to produce Black Flag. We are a small collective and we are always looking for comrades to write, edit and otherwise get involved.

We have formed links with the Anarchist Federation (which contributes articles to their own dedicated pages) and aim to extend that to other organisations.

Bookchin

We need people to write, take bundles to sell, to proof-read, maintain our webpage and a host of other tasks which are required to make a magazine not only survive but to grow.

We are aiming to become quarterly but that goal depends on our readers actively participating rather than passively consuming a product. If you are a class struggle anarchist, like Black Flag and wish it to not only continue but flourish into the regular and frequent magazine of our movement needs, please get in touch.

Wednesday, 9 June 2010

This blog is being set up as a dedicated space for the magazines put out by the Black Flag collective, a group of anarchist-communists based primarily in London, England.

Published since 1970, Black Flag is one of Britain's longest-running anarchist magazines and publishes bi-annually, concentrating on providing a voice for thought-provoking theoretical, investigative and historical work.

As an independent collective, we welcome submissions of between 800-3,200 words from anyone of a left-libertarian perspective.